Guests who write in German, Italian, Hebrew or Polish: answering in their language

You can answer guests in German, Italian, Hebrew or Polish without a translator on staff, as long as you start from clear answers in your own language, get the tone and form of address right for each language, and check the details that translation tools tend to break: names, dates, times and numbers. The aim is not perfect prose. It is a reply that is correct, polite and easy for the guest to act on.

For a small hotel or guesthouse, this matters more than it seems. A guest who receives an answer in their own language reads it faster, understands it fully and feels that someone has taken the trouble.

Why a reply in English is not always enough

Many guests read English well. Many do not, and many more read it slowly when they are tired, travelling or worried. A question about a late arrival or a missing parking space is exactly the kind of message where a misunderstanding costs you: the guest arrives at the wrong entrance, or assumes the parking is reserved when it is not.

Replying in the guest's language also changes the tone of the whole stay. It says, before they arrive, that they will be looked after.

The pitfalls of copy-paste translation

The quick method is familiar: paste the guest's message into a translation tool, write a reply in English, translate it back, paste it in. It works often enough to be tempting, and fails in ways that are easy to miss.

• Context gets lost. “Is the room ready?” can mean early check-in, or simply whether the booking is confirmed. Without the booking in front of you, the translation answers the wrong question.
• Your own words get mangled. House-specific terms such as “the annex”, “the garden flat” or “the key safe” come back as something odd or literal.
• Formatting breaks. Hebrew is written right to left; mixed with English words, numbers and links, a pasted reply can come out jumbled and hard to read.
• It takes time. Four windows, three pastes and a check, for each message. In a busy afternoon, that is the reply that gets left until evening.

Tone and form of address

Each of these languages has its own expectations, and a reply that is correct but too casual can read as careless.

• German. Use the formal “Sie” with guests, and keep the reply orderly and precise. Clear times, clear directions, no flourishes.
• Italian. The formal “Lei” is the safe default in writing. A little warmth is welcome, but the facts should still come first.
• Polish. Address the guest formally, as “Pan” or “Pani”, unless they write to you informally first. A plain first-name greeting can feel abrupt.
• Hebrew. Replies are often a little more direct and less ceremonious than in German, but should still be courteous. Make sure the text displays right to left and that times and numbers stay readable.

The guest will forgive a slightly plain sentence. They will not forgive the wrong date.

Names, dates and numbers

This is where most damage is done, and it is the easiest part to check.

• Names. Keep the guest's name exactly as it appears on the booking, with its accents and letters: Müller, Łukasz, Nicolò. Translation tools sometimes “correct” them. Your property's name should never be translated.
• Dates. Write the month as a word rather than in numbers. “3 May” cannot be misread; “3/5” can, depending on where the guest lives.
• Times. Use the 24-hour clock, which is standard in all four languages: 15:00, not 3 pm.
• Prices and codes. Check that amounts in € and door codes have come through unchanged. A single swapped digit in a key-box code is a long night for someone.

A simple way to work

Start with a set of approved answers in your own language for the questions you receive every week: check-in, parking, breakfast, late arrival, cots, pets. We listed the most common ones in the questions guests ask most on Booking.com. Those answers are your source of truth. Every translated reply should say the same thing, nothing more.

Then keep anything sensitive out of quick translations: refunds, cancellations and complaints deserve a person who understands exactly what is being asked, even if that person takes a little longer and uses help to read the message.

Where Concierva fits

Concierva replies in the guest's language by default. It reads each message from Booking.com, Airbnb or Expedia together with its booking, writes the answer from your property's own information, and keeps names, dates and times as they are on the reservation. See how this works for Booking.com guest messages.

All conversations, from every channel and in every language, arrive in one inbox, where you can read the original message and the reply side by side. Cancellations, refunds and complaints still come to your team, with a summary in your language.